TEXARKANA, Ark. - University of Houston junior Curtis Reed held a share of the First Round lead at the Conference USA Championships with a 68 on Sunday afternoon at Texarkana Country Club.

Overcoming a bogey on his first hole, the Colleyville, Texas, native rebounded with birdies on two of the next three holes. After a bogey on the sixth hole, Reed drained an eagle on the 525-yard, par-5 seventh hole and followed with a birdie on No. 8 and a par to close out his front nine with a 33.

Reed opened the back nine with three straight pars and added a birdie on the 206-yard, par-3 13th hole. Two holes after a bogey on No. 14, Reed finished with his fifth and final birdie of the day on the 16th hole.

With that impressive effort, he moved into the team lead with 12 rounds or par or better, including five rounds in the 60s.

"Curtis played a great round. A 68 was a great score out there today. He hit a lot of great shots and made some great putts," director of golf Jonathan Dismuke said. "His play was outstanding."

As a team, the Cougars overcame a slow start and finished the first day in third place with a score of 286. After the five-man Houston lineup played their opening hole at +4, the team rallied nicely to play the final 17 holes at a combined -6.

"We didn't hit the ball well but we hung in there and had a good finish. We haven't got off to the best starts this year, but one of the things that we identified was that he had to do a better job of hanging in those rounds no matter how things were going," Dismuke said. "We did a tremendous job of that today."

Reed was one of three Cougars among the top-14 leaders. Sophomore Roman Robledo stood at +3 through the first seven holes but drained an eagle on the 560-yard, par-5 16th hole and finished his first round at even-par 72.

Competing in his first C-USA Championships, freshman Vincent Martino finished with four birdies in his round, including his final one on the 17th hole to tie with Robledo at 11th.

"Roman and Vince got a lot out of their rounds today," Dismuke said. "They didn't play their best golf by any means but found a way to put up a good score," Dismuke said. "I'm really proud of those guys."

Sophomore Kyle Pilgrim, who recently earned three academic awards from the league, was tied for 26th at 74, while junior Wesley McClain was tied for 36th at 75.

Reed was one of four players to finish with 68s after the first round. He was joined by SMU teammates Bryson Dechambeau and UTEP's Martin Simonsen. Memphis' Grant Milner stood in fifth with a 69.

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The Second Round tees off at 8:30 a.m., Monday. Fans can follow live scoring at GolfStat.com by following the appropriate links or by clicking here.
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